Brian Hart (2)

This little history by the English novelist Brian Hart has over 120 evocative photographs of the old railroad stations and rolling stock in the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, England… more than enough to wring sentimental memories from this ex-Islander.

One of my first is of being frightened as a small boy on my first train ride, on one of the early trains, jarring and rattling over the ways between marsh and beaches ..."Every stroke of the piston was a jar that made one wish the journey was at an end. I got further and further away from the engine-the apparent cause of the commotion, but it made little difference, bump, bump, bang, bang, was still the order of going”. One of my last is of the Engine Driver hurling curses and large lumps of coal at me and my friends as we walked along the soon to be defunct rails. I picked them up and took them home to my Mum!

The charm of Steam Trains (or just train travel) has never left me, and I even regularly choose to use Amtrak here in the US (gasp!) as a more human form of transport than arrogant airline travel and its attendant humiliating theatre of supposed security.

From its opening in 1896 to its closure in 1950 – to my disbelief and that of my family- this little ‘connector’ line was a community service and enjoyed regular local traffic as a viable and, because of the ability we had back then to actually walk, convenient method of visiting relatives and other towns on the Island.

Of course that convenience to the community counted for nothing in the overall operation of the British Rail System and the “Sheppey Light” followed other public services into oblivion.… (mais)